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Going to “Acapulco”: An Interview with Michael Kingsbaker

New York-based theater actor Michael Kingsbaker has been making a name for himself both on the stage and in film, mainly in supporting roles. Having the ability to perform his own stunts, he has a stunt credit in The Dark Knight Rises, where he can be seen during the Bane-Batman brawl on the steps of Gotham City Hall. Since then, Kingsbaker has continued his career and it is all coming to a head with his first major lead role in a film, the action-comedy Welcome to Acapulco, coming to theaters, VOD, and Digital HD today from Momentum Pictures.

World Film Geek had the opportunity to talk with Kingsbaker about his first major lead role in a film.

Thank you so much Michael for talking about Welcome to Acapulco. I saw the film and found it to be a fun action-comedy that was a total wild ride. I really enjoyed it!Thank you so much! I really appreciate that!

Michael Kingsbaker as Matt in Welcome to Acapulco (Momentum Pictures)

What attracted you to the role of Matt?Well, I like characters that are like the everyman, especially for an action film. In that, you normally play the cool guy or the tough guy. If it is someone like you or me, it adds a sense of craziness and that allowed me to do that with this film.

You got to work with some great talent in the film, from Michael Madsen, William Baldwin, and Paul Sorvino to Bradley Gregg and Ana Serradilla. What was it working with them on the film?Fantastic! I mean, I was a big fan of these guys so to work with them was a dream come true. It is great to see Bradley doing films again. I was a fan of his when he did his earlier films. I mean, in the case of Madsen, I remember as a kid auditioning for Free Willy and I obviously didn’t get it (laughs), but to work with him was great. William was great to work with. Paul Sorvino was great to work with. Ana and I became really tight on the set. She’s a natural at this and was amazing to work with.

Michael (second to left) with some of the cast and crew of Welcome to Acapulco

What was it like working with Guillermo Ivan, the director of the film? Did he allow you a bit of free rein on the role?Guillermo was great to work with. He would allow us to come up with ideas in terms of how to bring the characters to life. He had a great attitude. He would come to the set and no matter how stressful the day would be, that guy would be the one who would bring everyone together. He and Ana really helped everyone out when it was needed and he’s just a great guy to be around. He’s not just a director, but he produced and also acted in the film and he just had this positivity around him.

What would you say was your favorite part of shooting the film? I would say the action scenes were quite fun to watch in both a root for the underdog and at times, laugh out loud way.I mean, the location. It is such a beautiful place to be. We had a lot of fun shooting there and I did enjoy doing the action scenes as well.

Emulating the video game hero inside him, Matt goes in action in Welcome to Acapulco

As a fun question, as Matt is a video game designer, are you a gamer as well as an actor?I grew up playing different video games, but I really enjoyed PlayStation and PlayStation 2 and that was pretty much it. Nowadays, I don’t game much, but sometimes when I go to visit my nephew, I’ll play a little here and there.

Finally, are there any new projects in the works that you can talk about?I have a short film coming out and I’m also doing some theater work here in New York.

Welcome to Acapulco comes to theaters, VOD, and Digital on March 12 (today). Anyone who wants a definitive wild ride movie with a new star in the making will definitely want to see this. Thank you again Michael for talking about the film.
Thank you so much!

A Special Thank You goes to Katrina Wan PR and Michael Kingsbaker for making this interview possible. For more on Michael, check out his official website.